| Loading up in Boulder. |
| Steph betrays her Wisconsonian roots at the Breckenridge base, with the cows and the booze. |
| John, our parking-lot neighbor, shows us how the experts do it. (He's passing time until he heads up at noon to clip a ticket and ride.) |
| The back-country hut is regularly served by the ski bus. |
| Chuck, Steph, Karl, and me. Joining us the next night will be John, Al, and Amy. |
| After riding the bus to Breck, we head up the trail to the hut (~ 5 miles). |
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| The many faces of Karl Kellogg. |
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| Nearing the hut... |
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| Chuck gets started on (and finishes) the Trader Joe's liqueur... |
| Dinner 1: garlic bread, mulled wine, and a 9-lb lasagne packed on dry ice. |
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| Teeth are brushed in parallel. |
| Steph looks all sultry with her toothbrush and that sexy Nalgene... |
| Chuck's pants lie almost aflame. |
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| In the morning, Steph expresses exactly how she feels about her swedish pancakes. |
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| Chuck breaks out the 7:30 AM Kahlua Especial. |
| Matt and ? sit at the table, observed by Herb and Francie on the wall. (The hut is named for Francie; the sauna is named after Herb, who died several years later.) |
| A person with an unknown name enjoys breakfast after her first hut trip. |
| In full-color, Steph is now more emotional about those pancakes. |
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| Sandy maps while skins dry. |
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| The four of us set out up the canyon for some day-trippin'. |
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| Steph points (but at what?) |
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| Check out that beard! |
| Steph at the base of our first descent. |
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| OK, now there's a lot of photos of all of us skiing. It really was a fabulous day. I know there's too many photos, but just make a little flip-book of them (or click quickly), and they'll make a sweet movie, guaranteed. |
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| Carl starts to lose it... |
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| Check out that powder! |
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| Steph, Chuck, and their skins coordinate very well. |
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| Top of the next run. |
| Whoa! OK, so this is the ptarmigan that I apparently skiied right over as I descended. It squawked and ran about 15' once I'd cleared the area. The white-on-white coloring is no doubt of some evolutionary advantage, but it's a hindrance as far as skiier-bird collisions go. |
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| We left the hut in good hands; unfortunately, it's listing significantly upon our return. |
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| Chuck finishes off the remaining 7 pounds of lasagne. |
| Back out again... |
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| By Saturday PM, John/Al/Amy have arrived. John dishes up the linguini as we return from more runs, but not without a trip through the wood-fired sauna. |
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| Steph has been re-born. |
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| I attempt table bouldering just before Chuck peels off the hands, upgrading the route to a IIIi/T7+ (Mh). |
| Icicles outside, passing through the reflected window. |
| Matt strums. |
| Karl sleeps. |
| Steph brushes. |
| Karl sleeps some more. |
| Amy boggles. |
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| Steph lays. |
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| Chuck lunches. |
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| Lounging after lunching. |
| Back in Breck... |
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| The requisite post-hutting fluid replenishment. |
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| Whoa! That's the sun, behind an icy lenticular cloud that's been following us nearly all the way from Berck to Evergreen. No color enhancement -- that's the real thing. |
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| Kaia feels very foreshortened. |
| We drive and photograph, although the division of responsibilities is not entirely clear. |
Last modified Mon Apr 18 13:33:27 2005